1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pedestrian protection airbag system in which an airbag can be thrust out from an airbag storage portion and inflated to be disposed between a vehicle and a pedestrian so as to protect the pedestrian when the vehicle is to touch the pedestrian.
2. Related Art
In the related art, there is a pedestrian protection airbag system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-063499 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-315599. In the pedestrian protection airbag system, an airbag is folded and stored on a front portion side of a vehicle. When it is anticipated that the vehicle will collide with a pedestrian, inflation gas is made to flow into the airbag so that the airbag is inflated to prevent the pedestrian from touching the vehicle directly. Thus the pedestrian is protected by the airbag.
In such a pedestrian protection airbag system, it has been desired that the actuation time required since detecting that the vehicle will inevitably touch the pedestrian and till completely inflating the airbag is made as short as possible.
However, there is a limit in shortening such an actuation time. When the vehicle speed is high, there is a fear that the vehicle may collide with the pedestrian before the airbag is completely inflated.